For Credit: Into the Dark

Comparing the C18 and the present day should always be attempted warily. Such comparisons can, without meaning to, distort the past--unless we recognize that (a) our familiarity with the present will always make the present seem better (more natural and reasonable) and (b) there are so many differences between past and present that one can, without noticing, be comparing apples and oranges. Moreover, it's easy to get sidetracked. Talking about the present is so much easier than talking about the past that it can be hard to stay focused on the reason why you're making the comparison in the first place: to understand the past better.

THAT SAID, sometimes taking a minute to articulate and recognize present-day beliefs and assumptions can help to show how ideas in an older text are distinctive, interesting, counter-intuitive, or otherwise worth exploring further. It's sometimes easier to articulate what seems peculiar or worthy of mention in an older text if you can contrast it with ideas we take for granted.



So, how is the companionable suicide being offered in this song similar to or different from the suicide pact between Koharu and Jihei? How does the view of death or suicide offered in this song differ from the attitudes we encounter in The Love Suicides of Amijima? Both of these texts seek to make death seem like an attractive option--but do they do so in similar ways? What interesting differences do you perceive?

Deadline: Friday (2/11), start of class.

For Credit: What Have We Learned?

A few fun links: Here are some Japanese fifth graders performing joruri (with a chorus of chanters). In the embedded video below, you can see some good footage of a bunraku performance (though since I don't read Japanese, I can't tell who is doing the performing, or where, or what the play is):



How did today's exercise in performing The Love Suicides at Amijima change how you understand the play? What observations do you have about the dramatic power of puppets, the role of the chanter, or the expressive power of gesture and body language?

Deadline: Wednesday (2/9), start of class.

For Credit: What Does Koharu Want? (SPOILERS)

Koharu tells Monzaemon (disguised as a samurai) that she wants out of her suicide pact because she is concerned about her mother and wants to live; later we learn that she wants out of the suicide pact because it is what Osan has asked of her, woman-to-woman, in order to protect Jihei and his family.

What do you think: Does Koharu want out on her own behalf--or only because Osan has asked her to help Jihei alive?

Cite some text to support your position (or to disagree, kindly and collegially, of course) with a classmate.

Deadline: Wednesday (2/9), start of class.

For Credit: Staging the Love Suicides at Amijima

The Longman anthology has an good explanation of bunraku puppet theater--the form for which Chikimatsu Monzoemon's The Love Suicides at Amijima was written.  Understanding how this poem is staged explains a lot about how it is written, so it's worth taking some time to look into the features of this important Japanese poetic form.

Whether or not you have time to read the Longman explanation, this video does a good job describing it for you and showing you some bunraku puppets and puppet-masters in action.   If your previous experience of puppets is limited to Sesame Street, this will be eye-opening.



A question to consider: how does the puppet staging of this drama affect how you read or understand the events of the play?  Let's take it for granted that seeing any play staged is more powerful than reading it on the page--any performance is going to be more vivid, ore true to the author's vision, and more engaging to the viewer's mind and emotions.  Given that basic feature of a performed play, how specifically might the features of bunraku theater affect how you understand the events depicted?  Would the puppets/chanter feel more or less artificial than actors on a stage?  What additional pleasures might this use of puppets contribute that aren't available in conventional Western forms of drama?  Are there parts of the play that you read or understand differently if you know that the dialogue and narration is being contributed by a single person, not individual actors?

Your response doesn't need to answer all of those questions!  They are just intended to get you thinking productively about this poetic form.

Deadline: Monday (2/7), 1pm.

For Credit: Writing Process

Feel free to respond here with thoughts, questions, reflections, complaints, or advice about the writing process as you prepare to hand in your first assignment.

Posts before midnight on Saturday (2/5) will count towards Week 3 blogging.  Posts after midnight on Saturday will count towards Week 4.  Deadline: Monday (2/7), 10am.

For Credit: Fantomina and Eloisa

Great discussion today!  Before we move on to our next couple of texts (The Love Suicides and The Story of the Stone), here's a chance for a little summing up.  Feel free to respond to any one of the following (or take issue--kindly and collegially--with a classmate's response):
Taken together, what have these two texts taught you about the Enlightenment-era world that was new to you?
What interpretively significant similarities do you find between these two texts?
How do the interpretively significant differences between these two texts illuminate your understanding of the period in which they were written?
What does "interpretively significant" mean?

Deadline: Saturday (2/5), midnight.

For Credit: So Where Do We Stand?

Since class was cancelled Wednesday, I'm extending the deadline on the current Eloisa to Abelard blog posts.  We'll have to cover two days' worth of discussion on this poem tomorrow in order to clear the decks for The Love Suicides of Amijima on Monday.  Respond to this post with your suggestions on what that compressed agenda should include:

• What issues have been resolved and can now be shelved?
• What conclusions have we come to?
• What interpretive questions that have come up so far seem to need some further discussion or resolution?
• What interpretive questions haven't been asked yet and should be?
• What would you like to know but haven't had a chance to ask yet?

You don't need to answer all those questions!  Pick one to prompt your ideas.  And feel free to take issue (kindly and collegially, of course) with a classmate's remarks.

Deadline: Friday (2/4), start of class.